BOOM

All through the night the wind was horrendous. I really thought a tree would fall on the house or a window would blow out. It was so cold we had the heating set to 21* (though I did have to turn it down at some point because I was too warm). As if the cold and wind wasn't enough we then had many Frost Quakes from about 5am onwards. Really big huge bangs that actually shook the house. Moo woke up and came down to see what it was. Luckily the kids didn't wake up. I can't believe how loud they were. It is officially called a Cryoseism and is to do with the frozen ground. It's a horrible noise, hope we don't get too many more. Mrs Rumbleskins sent me a link to the Guardian which said "And in Canada, they're experiencing something called frostquakes, which is what happens when nature throws everything at you and then decides to invent something even more terrifying". Actually Mrs Rumbleskins really sent me the link because Mr Rumbleskins wants us to try the experiments in the report. We tried both of the experiments but neither worked (though my hair did freeze!)

So this morning we had ice on the inside of the windows (we have lovely wooden sash windows but the cold air does get through). We had icicles hanging from everywhere and beautiful icy patterns on the outside the windows. The temperature gauge read -21* and the windchill was -35*.

Huffle went off to work okay but sent me a message to say it was very cold. The boys forgot to wake me up but thankfully the bus was running so we didn't need to rush too much. I made the boys wrap up well and didn't let them stand outside for the bus today. Moo stood on the landing watching for the bus. Even opening the door and watching them get on the bus let an icy chill into the house.

Moo and I had breakfast and waited for the cooker man to turn up. He rang last night and said he would be here between 10am and 12. Moo sat and jigsawed and did the washing and drying and I finished my sock and skyped Grandma and Grandad. At t 11:45 the cooker man rang and said he couldn't start his van this morning and was running behind. He thought he would be no longer than an hour. When they arrived I realised the gate was frozen, as were the big gates so they had to come through the front door and trample their snow covered boots through the living room. They manouvered it well and we now have a shiny new cooker.

Moo and I went out as soon as we cleared the snowprints up. We had lunch in a Portugese bakery and then went on to a Sports shop where they sold used and new skis, snowboards, skates, hockey everything, golf stuff. Moo got herself a pair of Ski boots and me a pair of ice skates which we had sharpened. We popped into Value Village and bought a quiche dish, a couple of scarves and a purse. We got home with two minutes to spare nefore the boys got back.

Moo clearing my windscreen

They had not been allowd out all day because it was too cold. Small went off to play at his friends house who lives at the back of us (they have a frozen pond where they skate - I might have to have a go now I have skates). Moo and I made a Broccoli and Blue Cheese soup for dinner while Smallest played on the computer.

I walked across the back to pick up Small (OMG it was so cold). We all had dinner, the littles watched TV while the biggies played table tennis.

 

A photo from theTelegraph of a man from Michigan today (after he had been snowblowing).

 

Please don't use my photos without asking first. Posted with Blogsy